


Hell of a Feeling Though

by freelancejouster



Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Body Horror, Fluff and Smut and Horror, Halloween, Haunted Houses, Horror, Human/Monster Romance, Listen there's a lot going on I don't know what to tell you, M/M, Mentioned Past JJP, Minor Violence, Monster sex, Playful Slut Shaming, Shapeshifter!Jackson, Side Ship: Children Yugbam, Tentacles, Trick or Treating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-17 08:24:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16091789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freelancejouster/pseuds/freelancejouster
Summary: Jaebum didn't mind taking Yugyeom and his friend trick-or-treating, not really.  And if he flirted a little too blatantly with one of the monsters while they waited in line for the haunted house, well, it was Halloween.  Maybe there was something in the air.





	Hell of a Feeling Though

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moonlikeyou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlikeyou/gifts).



> Written for 2018 Got7 Halloween Fic Exchange for moonlikeyou.
> 
> prompt: "person a goes trick-or-treating with kid relative, meets person b who works at the haunted house as a monster or smth and is super bored (meet-cute?)"
> 
> this is,, well it starts as that.
> 
> title from Panic! at the Disco - Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time
> 
> please take the tags seriously! this is definitely a horror fic sometimes! there are several too many teeth and there definitely is a monster dick! i don't think i can stress that enough! the monster has a dick!

"What are you going as?"

Jaebum looked down at himself, at his black hoodie with a skeleton's ribcage plastered onto it and his ripped jeans. He knew that Yugyeom was probably asking only to tell him to change, but —

"This?" he offered.

Yugyeom rolled his eyes and made a noise like Jaebum was endlessly embarrassing. Most things were at ten years old, so Jaebum had been told. It had been awhile and while many things were still embarrassing at seventeen, it wasn’t quite the same, apparently. "You can't wear a hoodie out trick or treating, that's _embarrassing_."

Yugyeom, himself, was dressed as some sort of Marvel character or other, Jaebum wasn't especially versed in them besides the rambling Yugyeom usually did. He was exceptionally easy to tune out when he got excited about something. Plus, it seemed like every time Jaebum stopped paying attention for more than a couple minutes, they came out with a new one and this wasn't any a costume he recognized.

"Okay, so I should go as, what? Thor then?" Jaebum asked, gesturing at his little brother.

"I'm Ant-Man," Yugyeom said woefully.

"Isn't that the one with Paul Rudd? Do you even like that one?" Jaebum asked, raising his eyebrows. He was pretty sure he had the right movie — and he was also pretty sure he'd only heard it playing once or twice compared to the nearly weekly watch through of Captain America and Iron Man movies.

"I like _all_ of them," Yugyeom insisted, crossing his arms. There was a beat. "It was all the store had left in my size."

"Yeah we should have taken you earlier, sorry buddy."

"It's okay," Yugyeom said with a shrug. He was a pretty mellow kid most of the time, surprisingly mature when he wasn't rolling his eyes or groaning at everything Jaebum did. "You need a costume though," Yugyeom said with a frown.

"This is all I've got, kid," Jaebum said, holding out his hands. There was nothing he could do about it. He wasn't about to go out and buy a whole entire costume just to walk Yugyeom and the kid who'd moved in down the street around trick or treating. Yugyeom called him "BamBam" but he didn't believe for a minute that that's what the kid actually went by. "Why does it matter so much, anyway? I'm like a fake grown up here, I don't actually have to dress up."

"You _do_ though," Yugyeom said, chewing on his lower lip. He'd been wandering around the house in his costume since they'd gotten home from school, adjusting it and carefully taking off parts of it to drink chocolate milk. Jaebum wondered if he didn't have a little crush or something on the new boy, but didn't want to embarrass him if he didn't want to talk about things like that just yet. Hell, mostly people didn’t come out until high school or so — there was no rush, even if that was the case. "I'll find you something," Yugyeom said over his shoulder as he stomped back towards his room.

"Okay," Jaebum called after him.

 

—

 

"I'm not sure cat ears make narrative sense here," Jaebum said with a little laugh on their way out the door. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and adjusted the headband so that it sat a little more centered on his head. He wasn't sure why they had a pair of fuzzy cat ears on a headband in the house or why that, combined with a skeleton hoodie was a better costume than just the skeleton hoodie on its own, but arguing it further didn't seem particularly worth it.

Yugyeom stood on his tiptoes to see more of himself in the mirror, head coming up to Jaebum's shoulder or so, and then nodded at them both.

"Are you ready?" Jaebum asked, patting down his own pockets for his wallet and keys, phone in hand. "Got your key and phone just in case? How about a bucket? Does BamBam have one or do you need to bring one for him?"

Yugyeom shook his head. "No, he told me he had one."

"Alright, let's go then," Jaebum said, ushering his brother out the door. Their parents weren't around much during the week and sometimes it was a little frustrating to feel like he was the one raising his little brother, but a lot of the time it was kind of — it was almost nice. He was a good kid, didn't seem to be too worried about what other people thought of him. Jaebum sometimes wished he could be like that, too.

BamBam lived down the street and around the corner from them, where the houses were kept just slightly nicer, but with smaller yards. Looking down the road was a little disorienting, all the houses two stories tall in pastel colors with varying silhouettes. The walk was short, though, the sky just starting to fade into the beginnings of dusk.

Jaebum figured they'd trick or treat for an hour or so, until it got truly dark, and then BamBam could sleep over if things were still going well and the kids felt like it.

"It's the yellow one!" Yugyeom said, speed-walking a little to get to the next house. When Jaebum joined him up the walk, Yugyeom was viciously ringing the doorbell.

"Hey," Jaebum stage-whispered, reaching for Yugyeom's arm to tug it down. "What if his parents are home?"

"What?" Yugyeom asked, like that was a stupid thing to assume.

"Don't be obnoxious," Jaebum said, pulling him back a little from the door.

"You're obnox— oh, cool costume!" Yugyeom said, distracted mid-insult by a boy opening the door in front of him. He was a slight little thing with gangly limbs, dressed in an amalgamation of shiny purples, greens, and golds that almost worked somehow.

"Thanks!" BamBam said with a giant grin.

"What are you going as?" Jaebum asked, just as BamBam ducked back behind the door to grab his things. He emerged with an oversized gold bag slung over his shoulder and a crown on top of his head.

"I'm a prince," BamBam said like it was something he told people often, adjusting the crown perched precariously atop his hair so that it was tilted the other way.

"Yeah," Yugyeom said solemnly, turning around to frown at Jaebum.

Jaebum very purposefully swallowed down his snicker and said, "Oh, of course, what was I thinking." Yugyeom elbowed him viciously later, though, so he must not have done a very good job.

They wandered back down the street without too much discussion of it, the boys trusting Jaebum to lead them wherever it was that they were going. Jaebum shoved his hands inside the pocket of his hoodie and flicked his hair out of his eyes.

There weren't a ton of people out yet, but there were still plenty. Mostly mothers with gaggles of children, like they'd been roped into taking all their children's friends or maybe all their neighbors along with them. They meandered down and across the road like they weren't afraid of any of the cars. All the oranges of their pumpkin costumes blended with jack-o'-lanterns on people’s steps, the fallen leaves, and the gentle yellow of approaching headlights. The sky started to fade just slightly yellow. Jaebum got a couple glances like people weren't sure why he was out, but mostly people ignored him, which was fine with him.

"Should we start here and then go down that way?” Jaebum asked, gesturing down the street. He knew about four blocks that way were nicer houses, figured if he could finagle the kids into getting a couple full-sized candy bars he’d have better luck pilfering some chocolate from them. But he also knew that they were ten and if he suggested they go a certain way any more outright than that, there was every chance of it turning into an entire ordeal. It was a little like herding cats, he figured.

The pair of them just shrugged and started down the street and then jogged down the walk to the first house without any hesitation at all. He’d been a little afraid that the boys would want him to come up to the doorsteps with them, but instead he was left on the sidewalk to keep half an eye on them.

They tromped down the street, pausing first to talk about how exciting the ghosts hanging from a particular tree were, then to debate whether or not a cat perched in the window of another house was real or not, and finally to ask politely to push a bunch of buttons on someone’s incredibly detailed robot costume. The evening was gently breezy, just cool enough for his sweatshirt, and though the cat headband was kind of giving him a headache, Yugyeom pressed a pair fun-sized Skittles packets into his hand without any prompting, which was pretty sweet of the kid.

“Thank you,” he said quietly. Yugyeom just shrugged and scurried away to shove BamBam into the oak tree he was walking under. Jaebum took a moment to rip the packet open and shove a couple of Skittles into his mouth before jogging after them.

It wasn’t particularly interesting, following his kid brother and the neighbor kid around on a Friday night, even if it was Halloween. Jaebum was nearly eighteen and there was only so much interest he could feign in the gossip of ten year olds. He didn’t really care about which boys had jumped off which parts of the jungle gym or all the places BamBam had lived before moving to their dinky little town on the outskirts of nowhere.

They moved on to the next block and then the next. The houses grew slowly but surely, cramped two story homes so close together the roofs almost touched gave way to McMansions and older, more sprawling estates with well kept yards. The wind whispered through the trees, making wind chimes sing somewhere across the street and all of them jump as one of the little cloth ghosts fell from the tree overhead and landed right in front of them.

“It’s not even scary,” Yugyeom said bluntly, as though he’d not squeaked a little bit along with the rest of them. He stooped to grab it from the sidewalk, dusting bits of dirt off the ghost. “It’s even kind of cute.”

“Sure,” Jaebum said passively, taking the ghost when Yugyeom handed it to him. It was a little bit cute, a goofy expression grinning from its face, but that wasn’t the sort of thing Jaebum usually said out loud.

He glanced above him, but the branches were too high for him to put the ghost back where it belonged, so he tucked it in a little hollow in the trunk of the tree. It grinned out at him, somehow more sinister for it. Jaebum blinked at it slowly, distrusting, before they moved on.

“Hey, what’s that?” asked BamBam, pointing a knobby finger at the park a block or so over.

The grassy space was liberally coated in Halloween decorations. All manner of obviously plastic, moss-coated tombstones, half-decayed zombies, and wispy cobwebs draped the trees and surrounding area. In the middle, stood a structure that looked like it had been half-put together in the strangest ways — a crooked sort of tower jutting up above all the exposed walls and black painted sections. A line of children and teenagers dragged out the front of it, costumed and uncostumed alike.

“The haunted house?” Jaebum asked.

“Can we go!” Yugyeom yelled more than asked, tugging on Jaebum’s sleeve.

Jaebum distinctly remembered it being pretty lame when he’d last gone, nothing more scary than some red Jello and jerkily moving skeletons. But that had been a couple years ago and the kids were ten, there was a pretty good chance that even if it wasn’t very good that they’d like it. Maybe he’d get lucky and they’d want to go repeatedly without him and he could just sit outside for awhile, maybe steal some of their candy corn.

“Sure,” said Jaebum with a shrug, and then immediately had to remind them about things like cars and walking as they attempted to bolt into the street in their desire to make a beeline for the park.

The boys chattered about what they thought the haunted house might have and landed quite quickly on the assumption that someone would probably make them touch something gross, yelling excitedly about what gross things they might have to touch, like peeled grapes or wet sausages or someone’s actual clipped toenails. (“Actual clipped toenails,” they repeated back and forth to each other endlessly in monotonous voices.) They continued on with the conversation even as they joined the end of the line, gesticulating wildly.

“Cute kids,” said a blunt voice beside him. Jaebum jumped just a little — he hadn’t seen anyone walking towards him. But there was someone nonetheless, right at his elbow. He looked regular enough, in a costume that mostly seemed to be comprised of semi-shredded clothing. He was roughly Jaebum’s height and age or a little older maybe. His hair flopped into his eyes a little, but Jaebum still got a glimpse of a pair of very strong eyebrows.

“Jesus,” Jaebum said quietly.

“Nope, Jackson,” the boy said, reaching out a hand. Jaebum took it without much thought, but wasn’t expecting the aggressively friendly handshake he got in return, hand clasped between both of Jackson’s own.

Jaebum let a bemused expression slide onto his face, but he wasn’t too put off. “Jaebum,” he told him.

There was something interesting about his earnestness. The way he leaned a little bit forward onto the balls of his feet. Jaebum absently wondered why he hadn’t seen him before.

“We need to pretend we know each other, okay?” Jackson asked him, grinning a little. “I’m supposed to be like, scaring people in the line but it’s getting old really fast honestly and there’s only so many times I can sneak up behind soccer moms and get smacked with their purses. Do you know how heavy those things are? What do you think they carry in them?”

Jaebum snickered a little. “Probably rocks, mostly.”

“But why?” Jackson asked, looking overly distraught. _Cute_ , came the thought unbidden from the back of his mind. This boy was cute, with his exaggerated emotions and his campy attitude.

“As a defense mechanism against overzealous haunted house participants, obviously.”

“I can’t help it! I’m a natural!” Jackson wailed, hands coming up to cling at Jaebum’s arm. Jaebum fought his immediate urge to shake him off — he wasn’t usually one for much physical contact, but something about Jackson felt exceedingly harmless. A solid part of him really didn’t want to. He heard Yugyeom make an annoyed noise up ahead and saw him very distinctly turn away from them.

“Are you alright though?” Jaebum asked, in lieu of anything interesting to say.

“Oh, of course, I’m very strong. Strong and resilient.”

“Yeah,” Jaebum said, flicking his eyes down to the strips of toned arm visible through the rips in Jackson’s costume. It was hard not to smile a little. “I can see that.”

Jackson made a little shocked noise at the blatant flirting but sidled up closer, hands gripping Jaebum’s arm in a way that was surprisingly welcome. Jaebum didn’t usually like people touching him, but it — well, it was Halloween. Maybe there was something in the air. “Are you objectifying me?”

“Only in the truest sense of the word,” Jaebum said with a little shrug. Jackson grinned, flashing all his pretty, square teeth. He was handsome in an almost unsettling way, like the features of his face worked too well together. Strong eyebrows, pretty cheekbones, floppy hair. It was so odd that Jaebum hadn’t noticed him somewhere around town — surely they’d have crossed each other’s paths before. “I’m mostly trying to figure out what your costume is.”

Jackson reached up and flicked at Jaebum’s cat ears with a raised eyebrow, but didn’t actually tease him about them. “It doesn’t make much sense without the monster head, I’ll give you that,” Jackson said with a little shake of his head. That wasn’t an answer, but it didn’t really matter. “I’m really going for a bare bones approach this year. Gotta really sell it.”

“So you’ve got a Mary Kay table in there somewhere?” Jaebum joked.

“Cute and funny, huh,” Jackson observed, instead of answering. He’d moved closer when Jaebum wasn’t paying attention. He had half a mind to sock him in the shoulder just to see if his arms were as solid as they looked. “No, it’s actually that Instagram tea that’s supposed to make you stop bloating or whatever, I got a screaming deal so I thought it fit well with the whole scary theme we were going for.”

Jaebum choked on a laugh and Jackson looked far too pleased with himself. He shuffled his feet a little like he wanted to stay longer, but knew he was probably needed somewhere else. “So I’ll see you inside?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Jaebum said with a shrug. He hadn’t really planned on going in, figured he’d let the kids go through on their own like he’d seen some other kids do earlier, but now — “Yeah, I’ll see you in there.”

“Good,” Jackson said, squeezing his arm once more, and then abruptly turning away. Jaebum blinked and he was gone, woven into the rapidly shortening line of people. Some part of him whined at the fact that he hadn’t bothered to watch him walk away, see where else he held his muscle.

“Gross,” Yugyeom said loudly, rolling his eyes only when Jaebum looked at him to make sure that he saw. BamBam snickered. “You’re so gross.”

“Takes one to know one,” Jaebum said mockingly, but without much venom.

“Oh man,” BamBam said, stepping back a little and adjusting his crown and it was all Jaebum could do to keep from chuckling.

They bickered quietly to each other as they shuffled forward in the line, streams of people filtering out the back of the haunted house to rejoin the line or wander back out into the neighborhood. He knew almost everyone in town, it felt like sometimes, and he recognized plenty of faces. There was Jinyoung and his picture perfect girlfriend, arms linked together like they were advertising something; there was Mark and his little co-ed flock of exchange student buddies, hanging off of each other in a different way, fingers wrapped around the neck of a beer bottle; and over there laying down in the grass was Seulgi singing off-key and waving her arms while her little sister sat off to the side and giggled. It wasn’t like the haunted house looked very scary at all, sort of ramshackle, but mostly just unfinished, but the people milling around it calmed him down even further.

It would be fine, he told himself.

He didn’t have anything to be scared of.

A girl in a wolf mask stood near the entrance, letting people into the building in little groups. As they drew closer, Jaebum could hear a slightly disjointed static, like she was being told when to let more people in on a shitty radio buried somewhere inside of her mask. It was an awful rubbery thing, fake drool and blood spilling from a distorted mouth.

It wasn’t — it _wasn’t_ scary. The mask was kind of ugly and maybe shocking at most. But somehow coupled with not knowing exactly what to expect from the inside of the building and being a little anxious as an aftereffect of whatever that conversation with Jackson had been — he felt himself grow distinctly uneasy. He watched the mother and her two daughters in front of them duck past the black fabric of the entrance and disappear.

He knew, logically, that people were coming out the other end, that it shouldn’t feel weird that no one ever came out of the entrance, that was how haunted houses _worked_ after all, but — Jaebum swallowed uneasily.

Yugyeom pressed his fingers into Jaebum’s palm, holding it without looking at it. A study of Yugyeom’s face made it very clear that it wasn’t for the kid’s own sake. Jaebum felt kind of stupid — here he was, practically an adult and his kid brother was having to hold his hand because he was scared. He grit his teeth, annoyed with himself, but didn’t let go.

“Go ahead,” the girl in the wolf mask said, voice sweeter than Jaebum had been expecting, though it was just as muffled. He registered absently that she’d been talking to them for the last minute or so, rattling off a list of warnings and directions, but he’d been ignoring her completely. He glanced over and she nodded a little, the rubber of her mask squelching. Jaebum attempted a polite smile at her but was pretty sure that he wasn’t successful.

“Weird,” BamBam whispered, striding forward. Yugyeom and Jaebum followed.

The inside was a little like Jaebum remembered it being. Maybe they repurposed sections of the walls every year. It was all purple and red lighting and stuffed with more fake cobwebs than the Halloween section of a Walmart. He batted at them instinctively for a couple seconds, feeling like bugs were crawling all over him, but then realized it was definitely a losing battle. The hallway they were in was pretty narrow, no room for them to navigate in more than single file.

“Cool!” Yugyeom said, letting go of Jaebum’s hand to rush forward. There was a skeleton slumped to the side of the hallway, fake blood oozing in thick burbles from its mouth.

“Don’t touch it!” Jaebum said, following.

“Oh, it’s _nasty_ ,” Yugyeom said, sounding thoroughly delighted. He squatted down slightly to get a closer look at it. It looked almost rotten, Jaebum noted with unease.

A clunk sounded from the wall behind them and then a noise like someone weeping. Jaebum tensed up. They all quickly turned and saw a face very close, so wrinkled it looked grotesque. As they looked, her mouth opened and spiders sluiced out, landing on them.

“Gross gross gross,” BamBam said, kicking his limbs out to try and shake them off of himself. Jaebum’s heart beat quickly and he brushed a hand down his arm to get rid of some of them, relieved to realize they were fake.

“Jesus,” Jaebum exhaled, trying to get his heart to stop thumping in his mouth.

“This is awesome,” Yugyeom said authoritatively, not even bothering to shake most of the spiders from his hair.

“Yeah,” Jaebum echoed. He swallowed. Whoever was running this place had really stepped their game up in the last couple years. Maybe they’d brought in professionals or something. “Ready to keep going?” Jaebum asked, nodding forward. They hadn’t made it very far at all yet.

“Yeah!” the boys exclaimed together, clamoring forward. Jaebum followed.

The next section, thankfully, was a little more tame. Strange portraits on the wall that seemed to sneer and move and become more aggressive the longer they looked at them. Mirrors that distorted their own images. Skeletons that dropped from the ceiling and ghosts who appeared both in front of and behind them, sometimes yelling at them, and sometimes just asking to sneak past with a large and discomforting grin. _Employees_ , Jaebum noted distantly to himself after a moment.

They rounded a corner and then another. There was only one path to follow but Jaebum still found himself feeling distinctly lost. He almost wished that there were Halloween music playing from somewhere, instead of whatever distant groans and whimpers he kept hearing. They walked past something that looked like it was made of only sharp edges, teeth protruding at odd angles, body contorted grotesquely in a way that very much did not look like a costume. It shifted a little, not about to lunge at them — it wasn’t there to spook them or anything. Its existence was the scary part.

BamBam giggled nervously, in a way that let Jaebum know he was not the fun kind of scared of the thing. Jaebum put a hand on his shoulder and they walked quickly past it.

The decorations started skewing towards bright green. A gentle green and gray haze dribbled slowly into the rooms. Jaebum could hear a fog machine tucked behind something. A figure in tattered black robes hunched over a cauldron, murmuring something dark and unsettling. They walked quietly past her, careful to avoid any of the stacks of books and collections of jars that had been placed along the way.

Yugyeom bumped into an end table and the stacks of books and trinkets on it shifted menacingly. Jaebum wondered off-hand if this whole place was really safe. He should have listened to the warnings at the entrance. What would he do if a hundred books and dozens of other things fell onto his little brother?

“Fuck,” Yugyeom swore quietly, glancing up at the precarious stack. Jaebum fought the urge to snicker.

“You,” said the witch, head snapping to look at them. Her skin was that same acid green. She looked powerful, like she didn’t have to wonder about anything because she knew everything already.

“M-me?” Yugyeom squeaked.

“Be careful,” she said in a monotone.

“Yes ma’am,” he said in a small voice.

There was a beat. It felt a little like they were waiting to be dismissed. Jaebum looked a little closer and saw something moving in the cauldron, shifting beneath the surface even when she wasn’t stirring. He swallowed dryly. What the fuck was this place? What had he done when he’d agreed to come here?

“Get them out of here,” she said and for a moment Jaebum wondered if she was talking to them. If they weren’t supposed to be taking part in something here, bringing something to another room for another witch or maybe a vampire. He’d always kind of thought vampires were cool.

It became very quickly clear that she was not talking to them. An assortment of hulking creatures, some that looked distinctly like werewolves and some that just looked unsettling appeared near where they’d entered from. One near the back shifted, and he was reminded immediately of the hulking thing from earlier and all its sharp corners. It didn’t look exactly the same, the shape a little different or maybe the size, but it was similar enough that the hairs on the back of Jaebum’s neck stood up.

These creatures strode towards their group and Jaebum felt a distinct awareness of his fight or flight instinct clicking into gear.

He’d always sort of thought it’d be fight.

“Let’s go,” he said, instead, turning from the creatures, a hand moving to corral each boy towards the exit of the section. He was already running but couldn’t remember having started. They exited through one of the only doors that they’d passed through and slammed it shut behind them, hands shaking with leftover adrenaline. A second or so later there was a loud thump up against the door of the wood, like one of the creatures had slammed up against it to get at them. Jaebum sank to the ground and tried to get his heartbeat under control.

He wondered absently just how large this place was.

The hallway widened. Realistic looking bats flew overhead, some emitting high-pitched noises, others as silent as the night. The walls looked more decrepit here, chunks of wallpaper missing and long claw marks dragging through the plaster, blood splattered and dripping chaotically. Zombies stumbled forward, alone and in pairs, from a hole in the wall. As scary as part of the house had been, this part was a little anticlimactic. Their makeup was good, variations on pale and purple and green, blood oozing from various places, limbs dragging, but this was something that he recognized — something stereotypically frightening rather than something bizarre and terrifying.

“Gross!” exclaimed Yugyeom cheerfully. He sounded relieved.

“ _Brains_ ,” groaned one of the zombies, stumbling forward. Jaebum navigated the boys carefully around her. Didn’t look too closely at the matted blood on her neck.

Yugyeom and BamBam ran on ahead, dodging zombies and laughing. BamBam ran a little ahead for a few steps, but Yugyeom lunged at him and grabbed at his hand and then they were running together. Jaebum followed, eyes wandering the room. He remembered Jackson’s tattered shirt from earlier, all the skin Jaebum had seen through it — maybe he was here somewhere, too.

“Oh, sorry,” he said, instinctively, bumping into one of the zombies. Their hand came up to grope passively at him, tugging on his sweatshirt a little but without any strength behind it. He stumbled away from it and felt his feet tread into something more damp than any of the flooring had been so far. A glance down showed a trail of sausages spilling from someone slumped against the wall. “Jesus,” he muttered to himself.

“Come on!” Yugyeom yelled from up ahead.

"Yeah!" Jaebum called back. "Coming!" He moved quickly away, this time careful not to run into anyone else. The area wasn't long, but there were more zombies in it than he would have expected, having to weave between them and dodge their outstretched fingers. He slipped through the exit after the boys and found himself back out into the real world. Back in the soft fall breeze and pretty orange glow of the setting sun.

"That was awesome!" BamBam said, face split into a wide grin, Yugyeom nodded, excited, though he didn't look particularly certain.

Jaebum wasn't sure what to make of it either — there was an immense wave of relief crashing down upon him now that he'd exited the building. He felt a little like laughing and a little like sinking to his knees and crying. (He wasn't usually a crier — he felt very much not like himself. Like he'd come out a different person from who he'd been before.)

Out in the daylight, the place seemed far less scary and it wasn't just because the outside was half-unfinished and coated liberally in tacky Halloween decorations. Now that he wasn't _in_ the moment anymore, it seemed so obvious that these things could have been staged. The creatures had been actors in suits, the wrinkled face dropping in close to them had been on a lever pulled somewhere. Jaebum caught his breath and reflected a little, assessing. He'd been terrified of things the entire time he was inside — but now, it almost felt like it had been fun. That's why people went into haunted houses, right? To be scared.

It had definitely accomplished that.

Jaebum glanced back to the kids. They were both smiling, BamBam bouncing a little on the balls of his feet like he wanted to either go again or go back to trick or treating. They were fine, they were all _fine_.

It was — he'd been so scared, parts of it didn't even feel real. Whatever had been in the cauldron, the shuffling creature with all the sharp edges. He wondered a little absently if they hadn't been born of fear — if he hadn't been amplifying things because he'd been terrified out of his mind in there.

"It was good, yeah," Jaebum said, trying to shake the shivery feeling out of himself. "Did you want to go again?" he asked, looking towards where the line snaked from the entrance. He wondered if he could get away with sending the kids by themselves.

"No, I want more candy," Yugyeom said authoritatively. BamBam brought his hand to his chin like it was something he needed to mull over, looked for all the world like an elderly academic. Jaebum had half a mind to sigh and let him know that it wasn't that serious and he wasn't sure anything was.

"Yeah, okay," BamBam said after a moment with a shrug.

"We can always come back later if we get bored," Jaebum said, hoping that that wasn't the case. That seemed to appease the kid. They milled around near the back of the house for a few more minutes. Yugyeom had seen someone he'd wanted to show his costume to in line behind them earlier. Jaebum gave a little finger-wiggling wave to Jinyoung when he emerged from the house, casual as anything, and received a small nod in return.

"Who do you even know?" Jaebum asked Yugyeom, after they'd been waiting for a couple minutes.

"Lots of people!" Yugyeom said, and then ran towards a scrawny looking teenager dressed as Iron Man as he emerged from the haunted house. Jaebum recognized him vaguely, probably the little brother of someone or other. 

_Wow, Ant Man, that's awesome! My mom loves him!_ Jaebum heard in a soft voice. He chuckled slightly. BamBam shook his head solemnly. He didn’t really seem to get the superhero thing either.

"Jungkook's our high school helper," Yugyeom said cheerfully as they made their way back to the sidewalk. "He's a good egg, our teacher always says so."

"Oh, you shouldn't have bothered him," Jaebum said, frowning. He kind of felt like he should go apologize for the kid, but he also didn't really want to go talk to a freshman if he didn't have to.

"No, no he said he wished he could see my costume," Yugyeom said, shaking his head and frowning. He had the most severe frown. "I'm not bothering him, we're friends."

"You're friends with a highschooler?" Jaebum asked, skeptical.

" _Yes_ ," BamBam said with a nod, like it was obvious. "He really likes superheros."

"Huh," Jaebum said, more to himself than the kids. They trotted down a driveway, bumping into each other a little on their way to the nearest porch. BamBam's crown wobbled dangerously. He wondered a little absently if _he_ were a highschool helper, if these nerds would be his favorite students. He watched as BamBam whipped a Milky Way bar at Yugyeom's head and thought probably.

They continued down the sidewalk, their bags slowly filling with candy. Sometimes complaining quietly as they got candy corn or individually wrapped bubble gum, but seeming to enjoy the night anyway. Jaebum had them take a left at the end of the block, and then another so they were more or less walking back the way that they'd come.

The sun was properly setting now, the soft pinks and yellows from earlier deepening to bright reds and deep, inky purples brushed across the sky like an overzealous abstract painting. They'd lost a little of the light, soft smoky clouds floating peacefully across the horizon. They could hear older kids out, running around nearby somewhere, cellphone flashlights shining already, faces covered in masks. BamBam heard a dog bark low and dangerous behind an upcoming fence and asked politely if they could cross to the other side of the street.

Jaebum watched Yugyeom slip his hand into BamBam's palm as they crossed the street and smiled softly to himself.

They walked up the next driveway like it was nothing, an older house that towered a little higher than its neighbors. There was something a little bit more somber about the almost dark. All the artificial cobwebs started to look a little more real out of the corner of his eyes, all the flickering jack-o-lanterns started to look just a little bit menacing.

The boys led as they crossed the street to the next block, the roads much emptier than they'd been just a half hour or so earlier, two blocks over. A set of distant headlights blinked on in the distance. The wind that had been so nice and cooling before, sent a chill shivering down Jaebum's spine. And then, there, at the edges of his vision was that monster from the haunted house, all sharp edges and impossible size, teeth glinting in the lowlight of the streetlamps as they flicked on overhead. Its limbs dappled in the shadows of tree branches, tiny in the distance but all the more terrifying for the true feeling at scale that gave it. It moved a little, terrible, something wrong and broken about its hulking body. Jaebum whipped his head to look at it, breath caught in his throat, and it was gone.

" _Fuck_ ," Jaebum whispered, heart pounding.

"You're not supposed to say that," Yugyeom complained, frowning as the kids walked back down the driveway.

"Sorry," Jaebum said immediately.

"Mom's going to tell me how you're a bad example," Yugyeom said, tiny body serious.

"Not if you don't tell her," Jaebum reminded him, chuckling a little. It hadn't been anything, just a trick of the light. Of course the monster wasn't following them around trick or treating. Of course it wasn't real. He tamped down whatever anxiousness had gripped him, swallowing it uncomfortably.

"Hmm," Yugyeom said, considering elaborately. Jaebum glanced fondly down at his face. There was a little smudge of chocolate on his cheek and something that looked like a sprinkle. He'd probably been letting them eat too much candy as they went, but he also hadn't really thought about it. Yugyeom looked kind of vibratey, now that Jaebum looked at him properly.

"How much candy have you eaten?" Jaebum asked with a laugh. They walked a little further down the block together. Some places had turned off their decorations, out of candy already.

"Not that much," Yugyeom protested.

"Liar," BamBam laughed.

"No more before we get home, okay?" Jaebum said, ruffling both their hair. BamBam batted his hand away but looked pleased more than anything.

"Ugh," Yugyeom groaned, but didn't argue the point, which made it very clear that Jaebum probably should have said something much earlier. Whoops.

They wandered up and then back down the next couple driveways quietly. Somewhere down the street someone was playing an acoustic version of the Monster Mash. Jaebum could almost — he could almost imagine it was nice again, a peaceful and fun Halloween. But he couldn't get the image of the — the _monster_ lurking beneath the trees out of his mind.

It had seemed so real.

And it was ridiculous, but it almost felt like he could smell it. Something dank and rotted like a forest floor that hadn't been there before. Almost like dead and dying leaves plastered together with mold. Jaebum shivered, but tried to keep a smile on his face anyway. He was the adult here, more or less, and they were on their way home. He could keep it together until they made it home.

Maybe he was just tired. Or maybe he'd eaten too many Skittles. Maybe all the red dye was starting to eat his brain and he'd be fine if he could just make it home to munch on some carrot sticks while the kids pelted popcorn at each other.

They wandered down another block or so. The kids flitted back and forth between the sidewalk and the houses, chiming greetings and showing off their costumes together. Jaebum watched, trying to keep an encouraging face on while glancing around.

He felt sort of paranoid, studying the middle-distance for any sign of the monster while at the same time, telling himself that it wasn’t real and he hadn’t seen anything. He could feel eyes on him, though, like he was being watched. A little shiver ran up his spine.

It was probably nothing.

"I'm tired," BamBam complained, flopping his skinny little body half over dramatically, crown bobbling with the movement.

"We maybe overestimated ourselves," Jaebum said with a chuckle. He tried very hard to keep it from sounding nervous. He recognized the area they were in, but they still had to go up a couple blocks and then over to make it back home. "Not too far now, though. Did you want to stay at ours for awhile? If your parents won't mind?"

BamBam perked up a little at that. "That could be fun," he said, wiggling a little. "Can I borrow your phone?"

"Huh? Oh sure," Jaebum said, fishing it out of his sweatshirt pocket and unlocking it.

Something rustled in the yard to their right as he handed the phone over. Chills broke down his spine, the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck standing straight up.

It was probably nothing. It was fall, it was probably a leaf or something, though it had sounded much too large. A squirrel, maybe, he told himself, though he didn't think that was likely either.

BamBam's conversation with his parents didn't take long, but Jaebum felt like his blood was ice for every second of it. Standing still in the middle of the empty sidewalk felt almost — well, it felt vulnerable. Like they were out in the open. Nothing to hide behind. When had he become such a scaredy cat?

 _In the haunted house_ , he reminded himself. He'd been irrationally scared then, too, in a way he'd never really felt besides eighty minutes into a horror movie.

Every noise Jaebum heard, from the rustling of branches overhead to laughter a block over to Yugyeom's bag of candy rasping against his costume put him a little more on edge. He felt sick with it, nauseous.

He told himself that he was overtired, that he was overreacting.

He wished that he believed himself.

The dank smell grew stronger, like mushrooms or maybe eggs. _Sulfur_ the uneasy voice in the back of his head told him. _Demons_ , it reminded him.

Unable to help himself, Jaebum glanced behind them.

"We're just going to play video games. I won't stay up too late. No, I haven't had near as much candy as Yugyeom," BamBam said into the phone, but his voice sounded almost far away. Like Jaebum was hearing it at the end of a tunnel, or something, blurred out by white noise and the sheer force of distance that wasn't there.

At the end of the sidewalk was the creature.

Jaebum blinked hard, but nothing changed. Its sharp edges glinting and glistening in the lamplight. Undeniably real. Pieces of it moving almost as if it were shifting independently, growing and twisting in grotesque ways. It seemed to lumber even as it stayed relatively still, something about it almost pulsing as it towered. Wind whispered through the dry leaves, but sounded almost like a knife being sharpened against the creature.

It moved closer, but like nothing Jaebum had ever seen before. Terror gripped his chest. He felt like he was going to vomit.

"I can stay over!" BamBam said cheerfully, oblivious. Did he not see it or did he think it was just somebody in a costume?

The kids, Jaebum realized in a panic. He had to protect the kids.

He wasn't sure how he knew that the thing, the _monster_ was after him, but he did. And he knew with the same certainty that it wasn't going to just ignore the kids if it got close. If the monster were to catch up with them, they'd all meet the same fate, whatever it was. However bloody.

It moved closer, sounding like a pair of scissors opening and closing. Jaebum felt sick, he felt so sick. He had to do something.

"Great, you guys go on home then," Jaebum said, clapping Yugyeom on the shoulder. Probably just a little too hard. He could apologize later. Yugyeom glanced up at him, alarmed.

"Where are _you_ going?" he asked, accusingly.

Jaebum wasn't supposed to leave them alone. He knew that. He knew that it was important and that he was supposed to protect them, which is why he'd gone trick or treating with them. Because they were just kids and people were fucking terrible. But also, well, the threat of something happening to them that would be terrible and devastating if he stayed with them seemed to be growing exponentially.

He corralled the boys forward, walking quickly but not so quickly they couldn't keep up. They needed to make it to the end of the next block and then Jaebum could keep walking forward and they could walk back home and everything would be fine. It would be _fine_ and Jaebum could deal with — with whatever was going to happen to him.

"My friend texted me earlier, I'm going to go to a party at his, I think," Jaebum said, trying to make the lie sound believable.

"What friend?" Yugyeom asked, squinting a little.

"None of your business," Jaebum said, trying to make his tone of voice matter of fact. They didn't have time to argue about this. He glanced across the street as they made their way across it. His heart in his throat, thudding with panic. Every movement of his head ramped his anxiety up a little, not sure when he'd catch another glimpse of the creature and see it was right behind him now.

See it outstretching its claws.

See it moments away from digging into the flesh of his back.

It felt like he had minutes, if he were lucky, to get the kids out of here. They needed to hurry. They needed to _move_.

"Jeez," Yugyeom said, rolling his eyes, then mumbled something like _touchy_ under his breath. BamBam laughed uncomfortably. Jaebum was probably scaring them, he thought distantly, but that was less important than keeping them safe. Almost everything was at this point.

"You're going to have so much fun without me," Jaebum said, a touch too earnestly. His heart thudded in his chest, that sulfur smell caught in his nose. Half a block to go. "Just invite Youngjae over and watch that new Spiderman movie and make popcorn and don't eat way too much candy."

Yugyeom scoffed, but then laughed a little. Always too perceptive. If Jaebum couldn’t keep calm, he could. "Sure, we can do that, right Bam?"

"Yep, _without_ you," BamBam said, linking arms with Yugyeom.

"Good, thank you," Jaebum said, ushering them around the corner.

He stood still for a moment. It felt like he was wasting precious time, but also he needed to see them go. Yugyeom turned around after a few steps and stuck his tongue out at Jaebum, but then he turned and the kids happily made their way towards home.

Jaebum turned completely around, refusing to look at how close the monster was. He jogged across the street, and down the next block, leading it away from the kids.

He wasn't — he wasn't sure what he was going to do now that they were safe, and not having an objective made him all the more aware of the situation he was in.

Alone.

Pursued by a monster the likes of which he'd never seen before, like some sharp-edged demon that had clawed its way out of the viscera and into being by sheer force of will. Jaebum couldn't picture a face for it, no structure like a human. Made of sharp edges and teeth on teeth on teeth and all those limbs.

It's not — it's not something he could have imagined. No hope lingered that maybe he was just hallucinating the thing. That maybe he was going crazy. It was there. It was —

He jogged down the street, panic clawing at his chest and making it tight and heavy. He tried not to imagine the limbs digging into his skin, puncturing and rupturing. Dragging through him until there was nothing left.

He didn't — running didn't seem to be an option, because as quickly as he was moving away from the thing, he still heard it behind him. Sweat dripped down his neck, into his eyes. He felt hot tears stinging at his eyes as he glanced behind himself and saw that he'd lost ground somehow, the thing moving slowly, so slowly, but keeping pace.

Thirty feet between them and closing.  
A sharp little sob broke from his mouth.

Jaebum couldn't breathe, he couldn't breathe — there's nothing he could do and it was going to get him. It was going to reach him and do whatever it is that would happen. He imagined something gruesome — blood, so much blood.

He imagined nothing left of himself.

" _Fuck_ ," he whispered quietly, to himself. It sounded panicked, waterlogged. He registered abstractly that he'd been crying.

He heard the monster behind him, the sound of metal against metal. Jaebum’s breath caught in his throat.

Maybe this was it.

"Jaebum?"

The voice sounded almost familiar. Slightly concerned.

"Oh, man, you walk way too fast, you know that? How's a guy supposed to catch up with you if you're walking so fast?"

Jaebum felt a chill all over. It had very little to do with the slight autumn breeze. He let himself slow and then stop. His brain screamed that he was making a mistake.

There was part of himself that felt just — just sick. Like maybe he would be an idiot for falling for this. But it — well, it almost sounded like Jackson.

"What?" Jaebum asked, turning. His voice sounded unusually raspy; it hung for too long in the air.

The monster was still there. Shifting slightly beneath the streetlights. Sharp protrusions glinting like weapons. Jaebum’s heart thudded with panic. God, the thing was terrifying up close. He heard himself whimper more than he felt it. Teeth spliced between knife-sharp limbs, towering over him.

“Do you — oh, shit, wait,” came Jackson’s voice from somewhere. There was a squelch and suddenly all the sharp pieces were eroding, retracting into the creature. The teeth arranged themselves through a dizzying and uncomfortable transition into a sort of mouth. The thing in front of him shrunk until it was more or less his height. It was upsetting in a way, like watching something he wasn't supposed to be privy to. Something he couldn't possibly understand.

And then.

“Jackson?” Jaebum asked, voice not much more than a squeak.

The boy stood where the monster had been, arms slowly retracting from some unspeakably distorted semblance of something and back to the way they’d looked when they’d met outside the haunted house — toned and peeking through the rips in his shirt. He looked sheepish, grinning wide.

Jaebum felt ridiculously disoriented, but much less scared than he'd been only a moment ago. Or not — not necessarily less scared, his heart was still beating faster than he could remember it ever beating before, his palms were sweaty, he felt ridiculously nauseous, but it — it was accompanied but an overwhelming wave of relief as well.

“Sorry. I’ve been following you for awhile to try and get your number — I was almost caught up with you a couple times, but then I got distracted by a cat and then I saw my friend. And you know, you walk so fucking fast, what is that?” he laughed a little, like he knew that he’d scared him.

“Fuck, I hate you,” Jaebum said, fishing for his phone in his hoodie pocket. He felt almost giddy with relief. He wasn’t about to be brutally murdered, just on the pavement in his tiny rural town. He wiped at his face with the sleeve of his sweatshirt — he probably looked like a goddamn mess.  
It was hard to think too much about it with Jackson looking at him like that, though. A little like he wanted to eat him (did he eat people? — the little terrified thought zipped through the front of his mind) and a little like he was wondering if he could kiss him, which was —

Well, it was sure an option.

"Listen," Jackson said, glancing back down at Jaebum's phone in his hands. He pulled a face like he wasn't sure if he should say what he wanted to — but in a sort of well-practiced way. It was obvious he'd done this before but it was distractingly cute anyway, the way he bit his tongue between his teeth for a moment. He looked back up at Jaebum and it was a little like the breath had been knocked out of him. "I'm sorry for scaring you, it's just that you're so cute when you're scared."

Jaebum laughed, a little embarrassed. "Shut up," he said, but couldn't help from smiling.

"No, seriously," Jackson said, laughing slightly. He handed the phone back and used it as an excuse to brush his fingers against Jaebum's. Jaebum shook his head a little but wasn't actually annoyed. He let his thumb drop down a little and drag against the back of Jackson's hand, skin soft and smooth. No trace of the monster he'd been just a few moments earlier. "I didn't really mean for you to see me like that at all, you know, that's more of fifth date conversation, but, uh — well, you were — you were so fucking cute and, uh — hey, Jaebum?"

"Yeah?" Jaebum asked, watching Jackson's lips.

"Do you have like — a fear boner right now?"

"What?"

"You know, a fear boner," Jackson said, matter-of-fact. "Is that why — or?"

Jaebum blinked. Did he — did he _what_?

He felt his face heat up before he'd even glanced down, but yes. There it was. Definitely a boner. It must have been all the adrenaline coursing through his veins when he'd been running away or maybe it was the excitement or maybe it was from relief but —

"Shut up," he whisper laughed, turning a little away from Jackson. Oh, he must have looked like an idiot.

Jackson just grinned at him, teeth sharper than they had been a minute ago.

There was a long moment where Jaebum tried to figure out why that was so hot. That Jackson looked very much like he wanted to eat him.

Maybe Jaebum would let him.

He cleared his throat a little, shifting with too much energy to stand still. Jackson caught on, though, and started walking them forward. Jaebum found that things were always less awkward when he had something to do besides just stand there. If he had something to hold or somewhere to go.

"So, the haunted house," Jackson said, lacing their fingers together like it wasn't something totally new. Like he was doing on purpose, like he'd been thinking about doing it. Jaebum was endeared. "Ten out of ten, right?"

"Eh," Jaebum said with a little chuckle. He remembered exactly how scared he'd been of it, but it didn't feel like hardly anything compared to how terrified he'd been of Jackson just minutes ago. Some things made other things feel like so much less. "I've been more scared before."

"Right, but did you like the spiders?" Jackson asked, shaking his head. "Because the spiders were my idea but Holly said that they were too cliche. Of course, she didn't mind too much when I suggested adding sausages to the witch's cauldron. I'm pretty sure that turned out even better than I expected."

"Is she —" Jaebum started, and then stopped himself, not sure how he wanted to ask it. "Er, uh, is she like you, too?" he settled on.

"Like me how?" Jackson asked, grinning. "Charming, handsome?"

"A shapeshifter," Jaebum said.

"Oh, sure, all the best people are," Jackson said with a little shrug. He considered for a moment and then reassessed his position. "Or, at least, all the best haunted house employees are. It should really be a requirement, though I am a huge fan of like, Jasmine's wolf mask."

"At the entrance?" Jaebum asked.

"Yes! Isn't it wonderful?" Jackson said, a little dreamily.

"Sure," Jaebum allowed.

Jackson shook his head, obviously fond. Jaebum wondered what he'd done specifically for this sort of thing to just — fall into his lap like this. How had he gotten so lucky?

He should probably be nicer, he considered as they rounded a corner, Jackson dragging him just a little bit so that Jaebum would run into him and they could sneak touches. Whatever was happening was much more exciting than what he'd figured his Halloween would be like. But he'd never been very effective at the being nice thing. Sarcasm was so much easier.

Jaebum pulled Jackson in a little closer, dragging him by a surprisingly intact belt loop.

Suddenly whatever easy flirting thing they'd been doing felt a lot more serious. God, he was pretty close up, Jaebum considered, raking his gaze over Jackson's features. Watched as he bit at his lip.

Even — even when he looked like a person, he looked a little like a monster. Something about him held the promise of it with every glance. Maybe it was just because Jaebum knew what he could turn into, knew how terrifying he could become in the space of a moment that made him feel somewhat — predatory.

That made him look hungry up close.

With a thought very much like _what the hell_ , Jaebum leaned in closer and kissed him.

It seemed like time stopped for a moment. It felt absurd that a kiss might do that, but as he felt Jackson's lips press lightly against his, everything quieted. He could no longer hear children yelling and laughing a couple blocks over, couldn't feel the icy autumn breeze tangle in his hair, and it was even like Jaebum's heart had stopped its heavy thudding.

He let himself linger in the moment for as long as he dared, soaking in the nervous stillness.

It was sweet, for a moment. Jackson kissing him back gently, almost like he was too scared to move. Hands clenched at his sides like he didn't know if he could touch.

But he tasted a little Skittles, so Jaebum dug his fingers into the ripped fabric at Jackson's waist and tilted his head a little and everything — it felt very much like everything melted from there, Jackson pouring forward like a broken dam, his tongue, just as sugar sweet as his lips, pressing in between Jaebum's.

He made a little whimpering noise in the back of his throat and Jaebum felt a whole shiver flit down his body in response.

"Oh," Jackson said with a little laugh as he pulled away.

"Was that —?" Jaebum started, but before he could actually ask if it was okay, Jackson was shaking his head and pulling Jaebum's face back in. Kissed him soft and wet.

"I didn't know," Jackson said simply. He shrugged, pulled Jaebum by the hand further down the sidewalk so that they could keep moving.

"Didn't know what?" Jaebum asked.

While Jackson wasn't looking at him, he pressed the pads of his fingers against his lips. He felt sort of tingly all over. Lips gone almost numb.

"That you were such a slut," Jackson said, matter-of-fact.

Jaebum swatted at him with the arm of his sweatshirt and felt himself blush red in response. "God, I fucking hate you," Jaebum said, rolling his eyes.

Jackson just grinned at him, tilting his head a little. As Jaebum watched his pretty, straight teeth grew sharp again, pointed and crooked and strange. Small little nubs of horns sprouted from his forehead and then sharpened, an ugly yellow-white.

"So you can just do it whenever you feel like?" Jaebum asked, too excited to bother with continuing to be embarrassed or worry about being nosy. He leaned in close to get a better look at the horns, pressing his thumb against the tip to see just how sharp they were. Pretty sharp.

"Of course," Jackson said with a little shrug. He looked sort of strange there, standing in the middle of the sidewalk with his scraggly teeth and little horns catching in his bangs but he was still pretty cute.

Jaebum found that he really didn't mind.

Jackson looked flustered at the attention, and pulled back a little. Jaebum followed him and kissed him. Jackson changed his teeth back, but they spent the next couple blocks like that, talking and teasing and chasing after each other with kisses.

Jackson smelled unreasonably nice up close, like pomegranates and something woody and rich like cedar. They shouldn't have worked together, not really, but it was all Jaebum could do to stop from burying his face in Jackson's neck. That would be — weird, probably. They didn't know each other that well — they'd just kissed a little. But it wasn't like Jaebum wanted to stop, either, so even as they walked he pressed a kiss to Jackson's shoulder. Pretended he wasn't completely tickled when Jackson planted a kiss on his hand in return.

"Are we —" Jaebum started, looking around at the neighborhood they'd walked to. He was pretty sure they'd managed to meander their way around the actual town and wound up on the other side of it. They hadn't been walking for too long, but the town was tiny. "Where are we going?" he asked, eyes flicking over the square little houses and their well-maintained yards. He thought he might have been to a birthday party once on the next block over, when he was very small and knew much less about the world and what might be in it.

"Oh, I — we're —" Jackson said, cutting himself off. He grinned, teeth pretty and square again. He had such a good smile, but it was a little embarrassed. "I mean, my house is just up another couple blocks if that's — you know, if that's alright with you."

Jaebum felt his eyes widen. It wasn't as though he were particularly innocent — he remembered Jinyoung letting him suck deep bruises into his neck under the bleachers a couple years ago, before the boy had redecided that it was probably better if he were straight. Remembered grinding up against people and making out with people he didn't know very well at all in closets a couple weekends ago at a party.

But for some reason he hadn't expected this, which was — he wondered a little off-handedly _why_ he hadn't expected it, considering if this wasn't, well, _exactly_ what he wanted to be doing. He inspected Jackson quietly, while he chattered on about how he hadn't wanted to make Jaebum uncomfortable and he hadn't meant that they would have to have sex, though he wasn't going argue if that's what Jaebum wanted and wiggled his eyebrows a little and then immediately looked apologetic but —

Jaebum dragged his eyes over the flirty look in his eyes, down the pretty lines of his neck. Let himself enjoy the way Jackson's muscles filled out the chest of his ripped shirt, the way his waist trimmed and dwindled, the way his arms looked in the half-light between the streetlights. Let himself imagine for a moment, going home with him. Entertained the idea of falling onto a comfortable bed with him, letting whatever terrifying monster he was fuck him stupid and it —

"Yeah," Jaebum said, nodding. "Let's go."

"What?" Jackson asked. He'd been paragraphs deep into an apology Jaebum hadn't been listening to. His strong brow furrowed in confusion and Jaebum found it equal parts hot and endearing.

He shrugged. Watched as the expression on Jackson's face twitched into something just this side of amused. Like he couldn't believe his luck. Watched the hungry look in his eye shift and flex.

It was a little terrifying, if Jaebum was being honest, _seeing_ the potential in front of him, unused. Not so much like a sleeping monster, but more like a waiting one. An anxiety niggled in the back of his mind. It felt like fear, like tears brimming, but it —

"Take me home," Jaebum said with a little shrug. Watched as Jackson bit as his tongue, all those sharp teeth.

"Deal."

The walk there was a stumbling mess of kisses and laughter. Jaebum tripped over a curb and felt decidedly foolish until Jackson pressed him up against the next tree and kissed him breathless, arms bracketing him in, making him feel very much contained. He let his head fall back against the bark of the trunk and tried his best not to whine as Jackson dragged sharp _sharp_ teeth along the line of his shoulder, shoving his sweatshirt to the side with no hesitation.

It was hard to just — just let himself be manhandled a little. It felt nice, but he was so used to acting like he wanted to push people around a little that it — it left him digging his fingers into the muscle of Jackson's arms, a little dazed from kissing, but a little desperate for something to hold on to.

"How about here?" Jackson murmured low, voice like a growl. Jaebum felt him shift slightly in his arms, first the size he'd been and then a little bigger, muscles moving beneath the skin. Jaebum dug his fingers in where he could, not caring if his nails dug blunt crescents into the skin he clung to.

Jaebum shook his head even as he gasped.

"Take me home," he whined.

"Take you home?" Jackson asked. Jaebum could feel the grin.

"Y-yeah — take me home," Jaebum repeated, nodding. He felt something twist low in his stomach, thrumming through him. It was inexplicably hot to be pressed against a tree where anyone could see, let himself melt a little into Jackson's arms, but he found he'd much rather be pressed into sheets. Somewhere it was a little easier to taste and touch.

Jackson hummed low and Jaebum could feel it rattle through his skin, buzz against his bones. "Okay baby," Jackson said.

"Hey!" Jaebum said, a little breathless even as he pushed Jackson away. "Hey, I'm not — that's not."

"Sure," Jackson said with a slightly lopsided grin and Jaebum kind of wanted to punch him, but he couldn't be certain that he wouldn't like that. "Anything you say."

"Good," Jaebum allowed, laughing a little.

Jackson snuck a rough hand at his waist, nearly gathering him in his arms to guide him another block down and around the corner. His arms wrapped around Jaebum more than they should have, extended length from somewhere to cover more of Jaebum's body. It made it a little hard to walk, Jackson's body draped over his, but it was — it was nice, too.

They wandered up a walk, Jackson pressing rough kisses to his neck. They reached the door and Jackson pushed him up against it just a little, not bothering to turn him around. It was dizzying, Jackson's lips at the back of his neck, a hand snaking beneath his sweatshirt. He felt his knees go a little weak in Jackson’s arms.

"Fuck," Jaebum gasped as he stumbled into the house and nearly into an end table. He didn't waste much time glancing around, just saw a smallish space with comfortable things, cozy but not cramped. "Fuck," he whimpered as Jackson manhandled him down a hallway, pulling his sweatshirt off of him, going for the buckle on his belt.

"Such a slut," Jackson mumbled, shaking his head.

"Hate you," Jaebum gasped, no venom behind it, as Jackson pressed him through the door to a bedroom. His head clunked against the door; it sounded surprisingly satisfying.

They both giggled a little, needlessly nervous, as the bedroom door closed behind them. Before, everything had been only a possibility, a flirtation, something that _could_ or _might_ happen — the door closing felt decidedly final. Like there was no turning back.

Jaebum felt his stomach twist just a little. Flicked his eyes down Jackson's form — more or less innocent, though he let his gaze drag a little on his arms, on the sharp spikes bubbling along his shoulders, on his pretty teeth —

"You know, you’ve said that before."

"Hmm?"

"That you hate me," Jackson drawled, stepping back in to kiss him, surprisingly sweet. He plucked Jaebum’s cat ears off with a soft smile. He looked like a monster, sure, but Jaebum felt himself melt a little anyway. Dwell on the hands that cinched themselves so carefully at his waist.

"Yeah," Jaebum breathed, letting himself taste the way Jackson dragged their tongues together. He shivered a little as Jackson's fingers threaded into his hair and pulled a little just above the nape of his neck. Jaebum gasped against his lips and he swore he could see Jackson's teeth grow just to drive him crazy.

Jaebum wasn't usually like this — he hadn't ever _really_ been like this, just flirted with the idea of it and made out with people at parties. And he'd had sex before, but even after he'd realized he preferred boys it had felt kind of — well, awkward and perfunctory. The assumption was that he'd wanted to top and so he had and it had just felt —

Well, definitely not like this. The thought made his heart thud in his chest a little bit harder, made adrenaline spike through his fingertips even as he let Jackson push him gently back onto the bed. He wasn't used to being not in control and the thought was a little terrifying, but there was something so easy about the way Jackson moved back against Jaebum. Something about how deftly his fingers undid the zipper of his jeans. How smoothly he dragged them down Jaebum's legs and came back to kiss at his stomach.

He let himself loll his head backwards and revel in it. Let his eyes slip shut for a moment and sigh and whimper to himself as Jackson dragged sharp teeth against his hip bones.

Jaebum knew he looked good, prided himself in looking good, though he didn't much like to show it off, but Jackson's soft _wow_ as he wrapped a hand around the muscle of Jaebum's thigh sent a little hum of pleasure through him. He threw an arm over his face, embarrassed at how smiley he'd gotten and all the soft noises he was making. All the whimpers, all the whines.

"Hey, no," Jackson said, pulling his arm away from his face. "No, no, no, you can't hide from me."

"Ugh," Jaebum said with a little laugh.

He let his arm drop anyway, too willing to be compliant, probably. He could feel Jackson looking at him, though, waiting expectantly, so he let his eyes crack back open and immediately flinched back a little. Where before, Jackson had been changing little parts of himself, just his teeth or just his arms, he'd shifted his entire face.

A creature, a _monster_ , teeth on teeth on grotesque looking features sat between his legs, and it looked hungry, terrifying. Eyes blinked at him, slow and almost reptile in the way they sat in his face. Jaebum felt his breath catch in his throat, pressed a hand to his chest.

"Oh," he said quietly. He knew, he _knew_ it was Jackson but he couldn't stop his heart from beating a panicked rhythm against his ribs. "Fuck," he said with a little laugh. "That's —"

The thing, the monst— _Jackson_ , Jaebum reminded himself. Jackson licked at his lips, tongue long and dexterous and decidedly _other_. Something about the way he moved almost animal, so much different than he'd been just a minute before.

Was it — Jaebum knew, he _knew_ it was Jackson, but that didn't stop his body from wanting to respond by getting as far away from the thing as possible. He felt all his muscles tense up, his legs pull in a little without his thinking about it.

Jackson leaned in a little, figure looming, and Jaebum felt his stomach twist, felt the same fear he'd had before on the sidewalk dig into his lungs, and he — he wanted — but then Jackson's face was back, shifting into those strong eyebrows and pretty teeth and he was kissing Jaebum. It was jarring, but Jaebum kissed him back like he was desperate, relief flooding his limbs and pouring out all of that tense energy, pouring everything back into Jackson.

He brought his hands up to cup Jackson's face and pull him closer, felt his hips come down to rest against Jaebum's. And he wasn't — he hadn't been thinking too much about it, but as Jackson rocked his hips just slightly it became very obvious that he was just as turned on as Jaebum. Was enjoying this at least as much. Something warm eased its way in beneath his ribs at the thought.

Maybe he hadn't been kidding, earlier, when he'd said he liked Jaebum scared. The idea was — it wasn't like Jackson, when he looked like a person, was particularly scary or felt particularly unsafe. And it wasn't like he wasn't enjoying himself, even in his panic he'd been hard, _ridiculously_ hard. The idea was interesting though, something a little bit extra catching on his teeth.

"Fuck," Jaebum said quietly when they broke back apart.

"I thought you'd like that," Jackson said, looking pleased with himself. Jaebum watched, entranced as the skin on his arms shifted and thickened, darkening to a charcoal. It looked almost scaly in the dim light of the room, just moonlight dropping through the gap between the curtains. It looked almost — Jaebum pet a tentative hand across the skin, letting his fingertips drag just a little bit. It didn’t look like anything he’d ever seen before. He made himself take a shaky breath.

He could do this, he could —

He _liked_ this he realized suddenly. He liked this more than just about anything he'd done before. Liked the way he felt small in the face of the — this monster pressing him into the bed sheets.

"God, you're cute," Jackson said, dragging appreciative hands across Jaebum's skin. Something sharp about them, almost pointed, and as he watched their path he found himself feeling almost fragile in response.

They dragged lower, fingernails digging into his hip bones, and lower still, pulling the band of his underwear with them. He felt the soft fabric tug a little, friction where there hadn't been before. Jaebum gasped as his cock slipped free with a little _thwack_ and a sting, but Jackson followed his hands down, dragging kisses across his stomach. He bit lightly near his belly button, all blunt teeth for once, and Jaebum gasped a little in response, hips kicking up. "Eager cutie," Jackson laughed, and promptly dropped his mouth down around Jaebum’s leaking cock.

Heat — all Jaebum felt was heat, both sinking heavy into his stomach, but also swirling around the head of his cock. Jackson's mouth was warmer than he thought any mouth really should be. Like there was a somehow damp flame licking around the length of it.

"Jesus fucking Christ," Jaebum heard himself say, hands finding their way into Jackson's hair and holding on for dear life. It was all he could do stop himself from bucking up against Jackson's mouth, all he could do to stop himself from moaning, from yelling out —

And then he felt Jackson's hands on his hips, back the way that they'd been, human and pretty. They were tracing soft little lines along Jaebum's hip bones, almost tickling with how light the touch was. Jaebum felt his breath catch in his throat as Jackson settled his hands down. Watched, transfixed, as Jackson grabbed almost carefully and pulled his hips up, pressing Jaebum's dick deeper into his mouth.

"Fuck," Jaebum said, watching Jackson hollow his cheeks. "Fuck, are you sure?"

In response, something that felt very much like a tentacle wrapped enthusiastically around Jaebum's cock and _pulled_. "Fuck, fuck okay, okay, okay, fuck that's —"

He let Jackson coax his hips into a quick rhythm, the feel of his mouth around him like nothing else in the world. Muscles that shouldn't have been there tensing and surrounding him in their wet, wonderful heat. He worked himself into a light sweat chasing the ache that had started behind his navel, beads catching in his bangs and glistening down his chest and stomach. He was — he'd been so hard even before Jackson had gotten his clothes off — he was comically close already, with just Jackson's mouth around him.

He whimpered quietly as he felt something wrapping its way around his thigh, Jackson's arm but almost boneless — far too flexible. It shone a little in the half-light, smooth and strange and —

 _A monster_ , Jaebum reminded himself. _A monster like he'd never thought to imagine_. Some part of Jackson pressed along the slight curve of his ass, gentle but confident. There was something so effortless about the way Jackson moved him — like he weighed nothing. Like he was something to be thrown around a little, inconsequential.

God, he — he hadn't thought about that before, hadn't ever considered wanting to be overpowered in any way, had wanted thing on equal footing (or maybe even to have the upper hand) but this — _this_ —

Something small and finger-like pressed, teasing, at his entrance. Circled slow, maddeningly slow. Jaebum whined a little at the contact, between that and the way Jackson had started slow, stroking licks along the length of his cock, it felt a little like he was about to teeter over the edge, over — Jaebum thought he saw Jackson raise an eyebrow, but it was difficult to tell through the shifting scales.

"Fuck, please," Jaebum gasped with a little nod. "Gonna — _shit_ , gonna need to get off my dick though, or I'm going to cum like — like _right_ now."

Jackson made a sort of growly noise that Jaebum thought might be a laugh, his face distorted with sharp and jagged teeth. Even now, even — even like this, Jaebum felt a little bloom of fear at his appearance. He wasn't — he wasn't _scared_ of Jackson, not really, his demeanor and the way he was treating him was nothing but soft and goofy, but still, he —

Any reasonable person would be wriggling their way out of the bed right about now, probably, instead of letting their legs fall gently further open. Hell, any reasonable person probably wouldn't have kissed him back.

He wondered a little about what that made him, then, even as Jackson pressed inside him.

"You're so tight," Jackson murmured. His other hand was petting aimlessly across Jaebum's thigh and stomach and it felt wonderful.

Jaebum grunted a little and shifted as Jackson pressed a bit further inside. He wasn't — it wasn't often he stuck more than a finger or two inside of himself, and the tentacle or whatever it was was already about that size and seemed to be quickly thickening. Even as it felt kind of nice, it was a little painful. Or well, more than a little painful, really, the longer it moved inside him. Jaebum scrunched up his eyebrows, trying to get himself to relax properly. He felt his building orgasm drop abruptly off as Jackson moved slowly in and out of him.

"Hey," Jackson said softly after a moment. "Hey, baby, are you okay? Do you — do you not want it?" he asked with a little laugh. A hand came up to brush Jaebum's tacky bangs off his forehead. The thing inside him slowed and shrunk a little and a with a little squelch became much, much wetter than it had been.

Jaebum whined a little, shaking his head. With the pressure not quite as thick inside him, it wasn't nearly as painful. He laughed shakily. "No, I'm — wan' it, I want it. It's just been awhile."

Jackson made a cooing noise, which frankly seemed a little ridiculous with his hulking form, his thick, scaly arms, and copious teeth, but it was comforting anyway. "I'll go slow for you. I've got you, okay?" Jackson asked, voice soft.

Jaebum nodded into the pillows. A hand came to stroke gently at his cock, thumb teasing right under the head of it. Jaebum let out a shaky sigh and tried to get himself to calm down a little. He felt a little embarrassed that he’d had to ask to slow down, felt like it probably made him seem sort of foolish and young and inexperienced, but —

Well, it didn’t seem to bother Jackson at all. He just pressed kisses to Jaebum’s chest and murmured reassurances, and that he was being good. And it wasn’t long before the length inside him started to feel like not — like not quite enough.

“Fuck,” he whined, arching his back a little to meet Jackson’s thrust.

“Eager baby,” Jackson mumbled, with a wicked smile of his regular teeth. Jaebum found he didn’t mind the pet name as much as he’d thought he would. “Ready for more?”

“Please,” he gasped as whatever was inside him was thickening already. Another gush of whatever liquid it was plunged into him, sticky and warm. “Fuck, please,” Jaebum whined, grinding down a little against it.

Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes but it felt good, it felt _good_ , Jackson’s hand still sliding dry along his cock. Whatever monster he’d shifted into at the moment didn’t particularly phase him, instead it was just a little twinge of fear and adrenaline dribbling behind everything else, just something else strange amongst the rest of everything else this day had been.

He found himself wondering just how much bigger than this Jackson’s cock would be. Wondered if it would feel like it was pressing him apart. Wondered how satisfying it would feel as it slotted into him, filling him up.

Jaebum let himself imagine what it might feel like, feeling little burbles and twists of pleasure swirl in his stomach and tingle down his arms and he felt — he felt —

“Fuck me properly?” Jaebum asked, flicking his eyes to meet Jackson’s.

“Properly how?” Jackson asked with a little laugh.

"Like —" Jaebum started. He could feel the words on the tip of his tongue and _wanted_ to say them, but it dawned on him distinctly how embarrassing it was going to be to say them, and he cut himself off with an audible click. Jackson grinned like he thought Jaebum was being cute or maybe like he wanted to eat him. The look was similar.

He felt something curl inside him, pressing deeper than it had before. It was impossible to tell just how much of the thing was inside him, how thoroughly stuffed he must be. Jaebum whimpered, thinking about it. "Is this what you wanted baby? Did you want more?" Jackson cooed.

Jackson leaned down and pressed soft kisses to Jaebum's chest, and Jaebum felt like he was melting. His hips rocked down out of habit, sinking a bit further down onto it. A shock of pleasure dragged through him, making him feel hazy and stupid and he just wanted — wanted —

"Want your cock," Jaebum heard himself say, immediately mortified at his words, but Jackson's grin was worth it. Pretty square teeth growing more dangerous the longer he looked at them.

"Think you can take me baby?" Jackson drawled. Jackson dragged a hand across Jaebum's torso, petting and teasing, dragging rough fingers across his sensitive hip bones. They kicked up a little, the light touch tickling, and the length of tentacle slipped out of him. Jaebum whimpered, empty, and reached out for Jackson. "Use your words," Jackson tutted. His grin was terrible.

"Please," Jaebum murmured. He felt a little empty without the tentacles twisting inside of him, pressing against his walls. He just wanted Jackson closer, wanted him inside him.

"Think you'll last?" Jackson asked. Jaebum could feel something blunt bump against the little curve of his ass, thick and weighty. He squirmed with anticipation, the impatient thrill of waiting.

"Probably not."

And then Jackson was pressing in in gentle little thrusts, slick from whatever had gushed into Jaebum earlier. A tentacle wrapped around his thigh and teased at that sensitive spot on his hip again, distracting him from how thick Jackson's cock felt inside him. Jaebum held his breath while it pushed inside, afraid if he moved at all that something might get jostled and it might become far too painful again.

He just wanted — he just wanted _this_ , wanted Jackson to fill him up. To tear him apart.

"Fuck, you take me so well. You're doing so good," Jackson cooed.

Another moment, a tentacle wrapping purposefully around his cock and moving and tightening in a slow, almost tender slide. He wondered a little distractedly if they were something Jackson was completely controlling or if they weren't something else. Another dipped down to bump against his balls. It was so much — it was _too_ much, a hundred sensations at once. He felt like all of his skin was going numb to make up for it.

Jackson's hips stilled and he leaned forward, careful, careful, to pet gently at Jaebum's cheek. His face shifted back into the goofy boy from the haunted house, sweet and grinning. He pressed a soft kiss to Jaebum's lips and he did his best to kiss him back, feeling incredibly fuzzy and disjointed from his body.

"Feel good, baby?" Jackson asked. He laughed gently, little puffs of air brushing against Jaebum's lips. A soothing hand pet down his thigh. Jaebum felt like he might be tearing up — he felt so full, so overwhelmed.

"Kiss me more," he murmured.

Jackson obliged, cupping his face with an authoritativeness that made Jaebum's head spin. Jaebum was melting, he was melting but it felt incredible. Jackson's lips slid along his, wet and urgent.

"Want me to fuck you?" Jackson asked. Jaebum nodded into the kiss, not caring that their teeth clacked, that his face was morphing back into something terrifying. "What me to fuck you up, fuck you good?"

"Please," Jaebum whined.

Jackson held tight to his face, grip sliding down a little to hold his chin. His fingers pressed into Jaebum's cheeks just a little too hard. He could feel the line of his teeth pressing into the skin inside of his mouth. Jackson started up a rhythm slow and languid, like they had all the time in the world. Like Jaebum hadn't been begging for it.

And it was a little — it was a little like he was playing at taking what he wanted. It felt a little like Jaebum was powerless to stop it. Jaebum squirmed a little to see what would happen and Jackson pressed him down into the sheets in response, grip tight on his face, and it was — _fuck_ it was hot.

It was even nicer when he considered how careful Jackson was actually being. How his features morphed and slipped and became terrifying, but his hands stayed more or less human where they touched Jaebum's skin. How he seemed to be muttering a near endless stream of praise and soft compliments. How when Jaebum winced or pushed at him, he shifted to make room for him. How he bent back down for kisses even as he fucked into him mercilessly.

Jackson pulled away and little and Jaebum whimpered low in his throat, sounding desperate and needy in a way that was embarrassing but also —

"God, you're so fucking hot baby. Tell me where — tell me where you want it?"

Jackson moved his hips just a little bit slower, torso tensing easily in a flat of pretty muscles. Jaebum guided him to a slightly shallower angle, pulled the tentacles back to tease against his hips, and it was —

"Just like that?" Jackson asked, cocky smile splayed across his face.

Jaebum nodded, gasping and babbling, "God, _fuck_ , yes. Right there, right fucking — right there, oh my god — gonna — fuck, I'm gonna — "

Something unfurled in his stomach and it felt like stars burst down his limbs, fizzling with energy, everything bright and on fire. Waves of his orgasm splashed through his body. It felt like everything was untensing at once, pleasure dragging through him like nothing else, cum spurting across his stomach in hot strings.

"Fuck," he said quietly, feeling boneless and limp on the sheets.

"You're cute," Jackson said, pulling out and sliding a tentacle and a hand around his own slick cock. Jaebum winced — it looked far too thick to have just been inside him.

Jackson's face and torso were a swirl of thick monster skin, scaly and distorted, almost like someone had run him through a blender, jagged teeth jutting dramatically more or less at random. It was as monstrous as he'd ever been, skin moving and breathing like nothing Jaebum had ever seen before. Something powerful and completely other that sent his heart thudding in his chest.

Jaebum reached up to drag a thumb along his rib cage where the skin changed from pretty, tan, and undeniably human to something almost ragged and unquestionably different. Jackson sighed softly and started to jerk himself off, tipping his head back. The line of his neck stretched prettily backwards, soft and almost human, before the skin curled up against itself and thicken as well, turning gray and crusted and distinctly _other_.

Jaebum shivered a little at the sight, but it was almost like — well, it seemed almost like Jackson didn't have much control over his appearance when he was focused on other things. Jaebum had assumed, before, that all the shifting had been for his benefit, to freak him out and keep him a little terrified underneath it all, but even Jackson's hands now had morphed into something vaguely unsettling, bony ridges protruding from where his fingers had been.

Jackson grunted quietly, close, and Jaebum traced his eyes down his body, trying to soak in the view. To take note of the way he moved and the way he gasped and groaned.

"Can I cum on you?" he asked, words smushed close together with urgency.

Jaebum fought the urge to roll his eyes, smiling fondly.

No sooner had he said, _Sure, why not,_ and Jackson was tensing and then coming across Jaebum's stomach, monster cum mixing milky and strange with Jaebum's own cooling on his stomach. He hung there, still, for a moment afterwards, as still as Jaebum had ever seen him, leaning back just a little, head thrown backwards. Almost statuesque. And then he shivered once and flopped sideways with a soft groan, apparently spent. He wiggled a little to press his face into Jaebum's arm; Jaebum laughed and swatted at him with a pillow.

They were still together for a moment and it felt almost strange. None of the sweaty movement of sex and nowhere to talk to and none of Jackson's chattering for them to entertain each other with. It felt a little strange, though not necessarily in a bad way. It was just that it was new, it was all new, and it wasn't like they'd gotten each other's last names or backstories or anything. Hell, Jaebum didn't even know if Jackson lived here alone or not. For all he knew a roommate or a scorned boyfriend could barge through the door and see him like — well like this, completely fucked out and covered in cum — at any moment.

Jackson pressed a soft kiss to Jaebum's shoulder with a mouth that looked so monstrous Jaebum felt himself shiver a little. He didn't know if he'd ever get used to that. But he — it felt a little silly to be jumping there already, but he thought distinctly that he'd like to.

"Hi," Jackson said, soft, after a moment, despite the terrifying way he'd transfigured his face.

"Hi," Jaebum said, laughing slightly in response.

"Good?" Jackson asked. Jaebum couldn't see any eyes, but he could still feel the nervous tentativeness of not quite knowing what this was.

"Good," Jaebum agreed.

"Little slut," Jackson cooed.

It was all Jaebum could do to keep from belting out a surprised laugh. Instead, he snickered into his hand and swatted at Jackson as carefully as he could, so as not to jostle the cum balanced precariously across his stomach. "I hate you," Jaebum mumbled with no malice behind it.

"You know, you've said that," Jackson said. "At least you're consistent, you know. Not one of those people who gets a monster cock in them and then changes their whole tune."

"A lot of experience on that front, then?" Jaebum asked.

"Who me? No, of course not," Jackson said with a toothy grin. "Why would you think that."

Jaebum surveyed him for a moment, letting his gaze linger on the grotesque pieces of Jackson that might have once been his face and it felt — Jaebum still felt at ease here. It was a little bit of a relief to note abstractly that he found him almost cute, even like this. And that he really didn't mind the way Jackson started to chatter when Jaebum was quiet for too long. Found that a little endearing as well.

"Hey Jackson?" Jaebum interrupted with a small smile.

"What's up?"

"Do you think that you could possibly grab a rag or something for me?"

Jackson stilled. Jaebum could picture his eyebrows raising, though he couldn't see them. And then, "Shit, yeah of course," he said, rolling off of the bed much more quickly than necessary. Jaebum snickered at the following _thunk_.

"Be careful," he said, watching as his hulking form lurched into the next room. It was difficult to tell if that was just how he moved when he looked like this or if he was rushing. Jaebum bet himself that it was some of both.

Jackson left the room, but called over his shoulder, "I don't _need_ to be careful. I've never had to before, I don't know why I would start n—"

Jackson's voice was cut off by something Jaebum could only describe as a squeal and the sound of something very large falling onto the tile floor of the bathroom and hitting the door and the tub on the way down. Jaebum sat up slowly, alarmed but not really wanting to have to help clean the cum off of anywhere it wasn't already. 

"Are you alright?" Jaebum called.

"Why the _fuck_ didn't you tell me I looked like that?" The top half of Jackson's regular, human body poked around the door frame. He looked mildly alarmed, eyes wide and dramatic, a hand pressed to his chest.

"What?" Jaebum asked.

"I caught sight of myself in the mirror and may have literally just had a heart attack," he shook his head like he couldn't believe it, making a face, and then as suddenly as he'd returned, he turned back out of the room. Jaebum could hear him muttering to himself, though, saying, "Jesus fucking Christ, what the fuck kind of shit are you into, oh my God."

Jaebum snorted and pulled one of the pillows over his face, face blushed red but undeniably happy.

**Author's Note:**

> upside down smiley face emoji.
> 
> Follow for crying and nonsense  
> [tumblr](https://sugaquillz.tumblr.com)  
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